Week 3 – Pre-cal 11

This week we have merged into a new chapter/section called absolute values and radicals. In this chapter, we learn the true values of numbers of all kinds, along with learning square roots and cubed roots. Our equations often combine a couple of these.

The absolute value of a real number is defined as the principal square root of the square of a number. For absolute values, we think it as numbers on a number line and valuing their distance from 0. As such, -4 would be 4 paces away from 0, making it actually 4. When in the brackets, negative numbers turn positive and positive stays positive.

For roots and radicals, a principal square root is when a squared number is equal to a whole number by itself. A non-perfect square root is when it does not equate to a sole whole number, rather transforming into an equation as such: √50 = 5√2. Only a few cubed roots can be whole (Q) but most are not.

We are usually practicing how to determine square roots that are not sole whole numbers and sometimes with added variables and exponents.

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